The Visitors (15 page)

Luke laughed, crushing the hopefulness that had filled my heart when the captain spoke. “Oh, so we're going to pretend he is a human? Look at him! With those weird crystal eyes, he will never fit in with us!”

“He could get contacts,” one of the female humans inserted. “They make those colored contacts that could hide his eyes easily.”

“You would have to go to school, even though you would be bored out of your mind,” the captain said, directing his thoughts now to me. “If you were going to be a normal seventeen-year-old human, you would have to do the things they do, which would include school.”

“I understand,” I told him as a small, uncontrollable smile began to cross my face. I hadn't imagined that any of the humans would entertain the idea in the least, but the captain actually seemed to
like
the proposal.

“Yeah, but how will he survive? The government will help for a while, sure, but this is a whole new definition of being in a foreign land. It will be like trying to force a toddler to act like an adult. Who's going to give him food and clothes and a place to stay?” Jady's dad didn't seem angry as he asked questions, just practical. He was still pacing around the room as the humans bounced their ideas back and forth.

Luke's dad spoke up. “He could stay with us. We have that extra room, and I'm sure my wife would love the idea.”

Jady's mouth dropped open as Luke flew into a rage. “
What
? No. Absolutely not. Dad, he's not staying with us!”

That's when I chimed in. “Thanks for the offer, sir, but I would never want to make anyone uncomfortable.” I couldn't imagine living in a house with Luke, who hated me with a passion that made my skin crawl.

“Noah, would you mind waiting outside so that we could discuss the logistics of all this a little more privately?” Jady's father asked as he motioned toward the door.

“Of course,” I said, standing up quickly. “Take all the time you need.” I walked to the door, but before I walked out, I turned back to face the group. “The last thing I would ever want is to be a burden to anyone. Obviously, I would insist on doing whatever I can to provide for myself. And if it's not going to work out, I understand completely. I am just grateful for the consideration of the idea.”

With that, I walked out and shut the door behind me. I sat down on the side of the visitors' chamber and leaned against the wall. As I closed my eyes, I did the only thing I could do at that point – wait.

Although I hadn't slept in well over twenty-four hours, I was in high spirits. Much to Noah's astonishment, we had worked out a plan that would allow him to accompany us to Earth. The captain and my father were going to take care of all the paperwork as soon as we landed. They had already spoken with some of the necessary contacts back home. Noah would become an official human, complete with a birth certificate and a social security number and everything else you need to be a citizen of the United States. He would receive colored contacts that would hide those sparkling eyes and he would enroll in my high school as a senior. I had suggested that they make him older so that he could at least go to college instead of wasting his time in high school, but the captain liked the idea of him attending high school for a year. He thought he could give them some insight into how they could alter public education to make it more hands-on and relevant. “Besides,” he had pointed out, “with his youthful features, people wouldn't believe his age if we made him too old.” I had laughed on the inside, thinking to myself that if he knew how old Noah really was, he would see the irony of that statement.

What surprised me most was how excited my father seemed to be about bringing Noah back to Earth. In my sixteen years, I had never even mentioned interest in a boy, and when I initially came forward with news of my new relationship, he didn't seem thrilled. I don't think it had anything to do with the fact that Noah was of another species; I think it was about the idea of interest in any male, period. Dad had always pictured me as someone who was too driven with my dreams of space travel to even think about a social life. But, my dad is a good man. He would never allow someone to be put to death, knowing he could have helped in some way to prevent it. And besides, he was just as excited as everyone else on the crew about the possibility of someone new coming to live on Earth, especially someone from this planet who could contribute so much.

I wasn't sure how at ease Noah was about living with Luke. He had seen Luke's initial reaction to the idea, and that was enough to make anyone uncomfortable. But once Luke's father talked some sense into him, he actually got on board with the plan. His father had pointed out that he had always wanted a sibling and would now have one. When that didn't seem to work, he told him that it seemed that Noah was coming no matter what, and that it would be better if he had another male his age to help him transition and be with him all the time. That was the argument that seemed to make Luke come around. I didn't know if it was the idea of serving as a mentor to Noah, or the idea of being with him all the time (which would allow him to watch
me
at all times) that changed his mind.

Whatever it was, it worked. My whole crew supported the idea. We weren't completely sure that everything would go smoothly. What if Noah's body rejected the change in sunlight exposure? What if his eyes rejected the contacts, revealing the truth? Noah seemed to believe that all of that could be fixed somehow through his computer chip. He himself did not know how to do it, but he was confident in Lucy's abilities.

If only it would be as easy to convince the leaders of Verdant to agree to let him go. I was dreading the meeting of the leaders that Noah had asked Sir Andrew to call. Although Ramona had told us that he would eventually be allowed to go, I couldn't help but be nervous about the condition he was going to be asked to follow. As terrified as I was of Sir Andrew, I had no idea what the other leaders were capable of doing.

I forced those thoughts out of my mind. I didn't have time to be scared. We were leaving the next afternoon, and we still had a lot of work to do. The leaders had agreed to hold a special meeting at night after dinner, and Noah and I wouldn't even have a chance to discuss our strategy during the day. He was gone to the training facility, and I had to spend the day pretending to be interested in whatever it was Sir Andrew was going to show us on our last full day. There was no way I could focus on anything else. My mind felt millions of miles away as I imagined what I would say in front of the leaders. I imagined them sitting at a long table, staring at me as Sir Andrew drilled me with questions about my seduction of Noah. The thought made goose bumps run over my arms and legs.

We spent our time on that day studying the younger members of society. As we walked into the stone building where they were trained, I realized suddenly that I had yet to see any children on this planet. Where were they hidden all the time? In fact, I remembered from one of our first days that Noah said the population was just over eight thousand. Where were they? In any given day, we may have seen a few hundred people. We saw them training for their careers, going about their days, eating in the dining hall. Even during the holiday, I knew I hadn't seen even a fraction of the whole population. Where were they concealed?

For once, I kept my curiosity at bay as Sir Andrew led us down a long corridor until we reached a large, open room with dividers that separated it into stations. The children looked to be around eight or nine years old. In groups of four, they rotated throughout the stations. At the station I got to observe, the students were hooked up to a machine and given some sort of three-dimensional glasses. The screen in front of them appeared to be vast darkness of outer space, and students were put in an aircraft and told to navigate through the atmosphere. The machine to which they were strapped moved with them as they threw their bodies in various positions, trying to dodge meteors and other distractions as they moved toward their destinations. Teachers observed them carefully, jotting down notes furiously throughout the simulation.

Despite my feelings toward Sir Andrew and the worries about the approaching night clouding my mind, I couldn't resist asking him questions. “Do these students have classrooms? You know, where they sit in desks and learn how to multiply and divide and study books? All the other basics of elementary school?”

Sir Andrew smiled at me before he responded. It was scary how well he could hide his disdain for me. “I'm afraid our ideas behind education are very different than the ideas you humans use on your planet. Our society does not value that sort of liberal education. We believe that hands-on training for the real world is much more important; we do not ‘study books.' Students learn to read, and once that skill is mastered, any reading that is assigned is strictly for instructional purposes.”

I absorbed that information. It sounded perfect, except…“But what about reading for fun? Do people read books for entertainment?”

“We do not place value on literature that does not serve a teaching purpose, young Jady,” Sir Andrew explained. Before he could elaborate, a bell sounded, signaling the end of the time allotted for the current activity. The students quickly formed lines, and in perfect unison, rotated to their next station to begin their next endeavor.

“They're like robots,” murmured Luke in fascination. “Not one of them out of place in line.” He was right. They didn't whisper and giggle like young kids were supposed to. Each student was serious, focused. Their teachers didn't have to give instructions, because the kids acted automatically. It was amazing.

I had one more question that I just couldn't ignore. “What happens if a kid doesn't act right in school?”

Sir Andrew paused, frowning. “What do you mean, ‘doesn't act right'?”

“You know, misbehaves. The kid doesn't go where he's supposed to go, or talks when he's supposed to be listening to directions. Things like that.”

I studied Sir Andrew, watching him as he formulated his response. Finally he said, “We don't have issues such as those. Our students follow instructions thoroughly. There is no misbehavior.”

My eyes widened in surprise as a million other questions popped into my head. But before I could ask another one, everything suddenly made sense. Of course they didn't have behavioral issues. The computer chips. They could program these kids from day one, and had thus eliminated any problems. Luke was more right than he could ever know; they really were like robots. Although I knew how sophisticated it all was, I felt sorry for them. Eliminating all of these issues that we faced with humans on Earth also eliminated originality.

The day could not have rushed by any faster. Before I knew it, we were sitting in the dining hall eating our dinner. I didn't have much of an appetite as the butterflies leapt around in my stomach. On second thought, butterflies did not accurately describe what was happening inside of me. It felt more like elephants playing leap frog. Noah was still sitting in his place next to Sir Andrew, eating his dinner as if we weren't about to face the most important battle of our lives. He appeared calm and collected, and so did Sir Andrew. At that moment, I wished for Lucy's gift of reading minds; I believed that both of them had a lot more going on inside than they were showing us.

I was pleased with my crew and their behavior throughout the day. No one even made reference to the conversation we had the night before. On the outside, they seemed like the same crew who had arrived here not long ago, eager to learn from this society and never suspecting that they were capable of harming another being. However, they believed the half-explanation that Noah and I gave them and accepted what they had to do without questioning it. Or without questioning it very much, anyway. It made me proud to be part of such an amazing group of people. If Sir Andrew had seen the compassion they had for Noah and his situation, he might have changed his mind about how “evil” we humans could be.

As I moved the noodles on my plate around to create shapes and patterns, Sir Andrew cleared his throat. “I hope that all of you have enjoyed your stay here with us, and we trust that you will have a safe travel back to Earth tomorrow afternoon. Enjoy your last night here, and I will see you bright and early for breakfast tomorrow morning.” With a pause, he looked down. “Noah and Jady, if the two of you are finished eating, please come with me.” He didn't look at either of us as he addressed us, but pushed in his chair and started walking briskly toward the door without looking to see if we were following him. Noah and I hesitated only slightly as we looked at each other with weak smiles and ran to catch up with him.

This was it: this was our moment. No one spoke as we followed Sir Andrew down the path in the direction of the center of the society. Suddenly, he came to a halt right in the middle of the path, causing me to almost run over him. “I'm sorry,” I said, feeling flustered.

He ignored me as he stared down the path. Following his gaze, I saw a large blue object coming directly toward us. It was moving so fast that I thought for a moment it was going to hit us all, but instead, it stopped directly in front of us. I stared at the object in amazement as Sir Andrew walked to the side of it and opened a door. “Get in,” he said to the two of us with a somber tone.

I let Noah lead the way toward the door of the blue object. It slightly resembled a car with two doors and windows in the front and on the sides, but it was wider and much flatter. Like the cars in the video games I watched during the holiday, there were no wheels, but it hovered above the ground, bobbing up and down slightly as it waited for us to get inside. Ducking down, I followed Noah through the door and was surprised to see Lucy already sitting inside the car-like thing, staring out the opposite window with her chin resting on her fist. I glanced up toward the front and did not see a driver, which caught me off-guard but did not scare me. My mind held much bigger worries at that point.

Why was Lucy there? Maybe I had been correct when I told Noah she was the one who ratted us out to the leaders. Maybe she was working with Sir Andrew and the others the whole time, and only used us to get more information. I looked at her cautiously as she avoided our eye contact. Noah had been quick to accuse Luke, but I knew we could not discount Lucy so fast. She seemed like our friend, but you could never be sure.

The strange blue car took us to the center of the largest building I had seen since our arrival. It was at least four stories tall, and was so long you almost couldn't see where it ended on either side. Like all the others, it was made of gray stone, and it had a small, obscure swirling pattern that ran all along the border of the double doors we were facing. There were no windows anywhere that I could see. Sitting out in the middle of nowhere, it looked dreary and absolutely terrifying with what must have been thousands of trees behind it and on the sides. I half-expected a moat and a dragon to be guarding the entrance.

I realized how appropriate the building's features were for housing the seven leaders of the society. From what I had learned from Noah, the leaders were very private and were rarely seen during the regular day-to-day affairs. They led from behind the scenes.

Without talking, we got out of the car and approached the double doors. Sir Andrew touched his palm onto a metal pad on the frame of the doors, and they opened automatically. We followed him down a large, empty, black hallway that led us to another set of double doors, similar to the ones outside the building. Sir Andrew entered a long code into a small keypad, causing these doors to open as well.

This time, we turned left as we made our way down another hallway, this one a little less bleak with dark purple walls and a few plants scattered down the sides. We weren't in this hallway long before Sir Andrew opened a door that brought us into a large, open room with dark green walls. At the end of the room was a long rectangular table where several males sat with their hands crossed in front of them, resting on the table. I started to feel panic as my stomach tightened and I realized how scarily accurate my imagination had been this time. The scene in front of me was almost exactly what I had pictured in my mind.

I looked over each one of them carefully as Sir Andrew introduced them to me. On the far end sat a man with brown hair who looked to be around the same age as Sir Andrew, who I learned was Sir Edward. He wore a solemn expression as he looked from me to the blond man next to him, sitting in the second seat. The third man also had blond hair, and I had to double-take as he could have almost passed as the twin of the second man at the table. Not only was his hair of the same color and cut, but his glittering brown eyes looked at me with the same disgusted expression. Mentally, I noted to avoid the looks of number two and number three, who I soon learned were Sir Thomas and Sir John. I remembered those names from Ramona's predictions; they were not going to take our side.